Yesterday morning I stopped at CVS before work and bought a Mastercard gift card for an upcoming event. As I was leaving the store I noticed an odd charge on the receipt. Activation Fee? $3.95? Seriously? It never even occurred to me that a gift card might cost more than the face value. Then later on in the day I read this post on Consumerist about the hidden costs in Visa and Mastercard gift cards. Wish I would have read that a few hours sooner!
Whaaaat? That’s really crappy. I’d heard about the other fees Consumerist mentioned, but I’ve never seen the activation fee before. Geez.
Sadly, getting money isn’t cheap.